• Financial Times, Wednesday, June 24, 2009 9:45 AM

You can see why other news magazines, such as Newsweek, have Economist envy. The British magazine bucked the trend of steep publishing industry declines with a 26% increase in operating profit for the fiscal year ending March 31. The company reaped approximately $92 million in operating profit and $514.2 million in revenue, up 17% compared to last year.

Chairman Robert Wilson attributed the growth in part to a "flight to quality" among advertisers. However, he added, "We cannot expect to match the record results we have seen this year, while so many of the world's major companies, on which much of our revenue depends, struggle.

CEO Andrew Rashbass says said the group has reduced costs and expects strength from other areas of its business. "Unlike many media companies, we enter a period of recession the most profitable we have ever been," he says. Average circulation of the core news weekly continued to rise, up 6.4% to 1.4 million for July to December 2008.

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